Posts Tagged 'Phishing'

When you find hosted content that doesn't meet our acceptable use policy or another kind of inappropriate Internet activity originating from a SoftLayer service, your natural reaction might be to assume, "SoftLayer must know about it, and the fact that it's going on suggests that they're allowing that behavior." I know this because every now and then, I come across a "@SoftLayer is phishing my email. #spamming #fail" Tweet or a "How about u stop hacking my computer???" Facebook post. It's easy to see where these users are coming from, so my goal for this post is to provide the background you need to understand how behavior we don't condone — what we consider "abuse" of our services — might occur on our platform and what we do when we learn about it.

The most common types of abuse reported from the SoftLayer network are spam, copyright/trademark infringement, phishing and abusive traffic (DDoS attacks). All four are handled by the same abuse team, but they're all handled a bit differently, so it's important to break them down to understand the most efficient way to report them to our team. When you're on the receiving end of abuse, all you want is to make it stop. In the hurry to report the abusive behavior, it's easy to leave out some of the key information we need to address your concern, so let's take a look at each type of abuse and the best ways to report it to the SoftLayer team:

If You Get Spam

Spam is the most common type of abuse that gets reported to SoftLayer. Spam email is unsolicited, indiscriminate bulk messaging that is sent to you without your explicit consent. If you open your email client right now, your junk mail folder probably has a few examples of spam ... Someone is trying to sell you discount drugs or arrange a multi-million dollar inheritance transfer. In many ways, it's great that email is so easy to use and pervasive to our daily lives, but that ease of use also makes it an easy medium for spammers to abuse. Whether the spammer is a direct SoftLayer customer or a customer of one of our customers or somewhere further down the line of customers of customers, spam messages sent from a SoftLayer server will point back to us, and our abuse team is the group that will help stop it.

When you receive spam sent through SoftLayer, you should forward it directly to our abuse team (abuse@softlayer.com). Our team needs a full copy of the email with its headers intact. If you're not sure what that means, check out these instructions on how to retrieve your email headers. The email headers help tell the story about where exactly the messages are coming from and which customer we need to contact to stop the abuse.

If You See Phishing

Phishing abuse might be encountered via spam or you might encounter it on a website. Phishing is best described as someone masquerading as someone else to get your sensitive information, and it's one of the most serious issues our abuse team faces. Every second that a phishing/scam site is online, another user might be fooled into giving up his or her credit card or login information, and we don't want that to happen. Often, the fact that a site is not legitimate is clear relatively quickly, but as defenses against phishing have gotten better, so have the phishing sites. Take a minute to go through this phishing IQ test to get an idea of how difficult phishing can be to trace.

When it comes to reporting phishing, you should send the site's URL to the abuse team (also using abuse@softlayer.com). If you came across the phishing site via a spam email, be sure to include the email headers with your message. To help us filter the phishing complaint, please make sure to include the word "phishing" in your email's subject line. Our team will immediately investigate and follow up with the infringing customer internally.

If You Find Copyright or Trademark Infringement

If infringement of your copyright or trademark is happening on our platform, we want to know about it so we can have it taken down immediately. Copyright complaints and trademark complaints are handled slightly differently, so let's look at each type to better understand how they work.

Complaints of copyright infringement are processed by our abuse team based on the strict DMCA complaint laws. When I say "strict" in that sentence, I'm not saying it lightly ... Because DMCA complaints are legal issues, every requirement in the DMCA must be met in order for our team to act on the complaint. That might seem arbitrary, but we're not given much leeway when it comes to the DMCA process, and we have to be sticklers.

On our DMCA legal page, we outline the process of reporting a DMCA complaint of copyright infringement (primarily citing the statute 17 U.S.C. Section 512(c)(3)). If you don't completely understand what needs to be included in the claim, we recommend that you seek independent legal advice. It sounds harsh, but failure to submit copyright infringement notification as described above will result in no legal notice or action on behalf of SoftLayer. When you've made sure all required evidence has been included in your DMCA complaint, make sure "copyright" or "DMCA" are included in your subject line and submit the complaint to copyright@softlayer.com.

Trademark complaints do not have the same requirements as copyright complaints, but the more information you can provide in your complaint, the easier it will be for our customer to locate and remove the offending material. If you encounter unauthorized use of your registered trademark on our network, please email copyright@softlayer.com with details — the exact location of the infringing content, your trademark registration information, etc. — along with an explanation that this trademark usage is unauthorized and should be removed. In your email, please add the word "trademark" to the subject line to help us filter and prioritize your complaint.

If You See Abusive Traffic

Spam, phishing and copyright infringement are relatively straightforward when it comes to finding and reporting abuse, but sometimes the abuse isn't as visible and tangible (though the effect usually is). If a SoftLayer server is sending abusive traffic to your site, we want to know about it as quickly as possible. Whether that behavior is part of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack or is just scanning ports to possibly attack later, it's important that you give us details so we can prevent any further activity.

To report this type of abuse, send a snippet from your log file including at least 10 lines of logs that show attempts to break into or overload your server. Here's a quick reference to where you can find the relevant logs to send:

Email Spam - Send Mail Logs:

/var/log/maillog

/usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog

Brute Force Attacks - Send SSH Logs:

/var/log/messages

/var/log/secure

Like spam and phishing reports, abusive traffic complaints should be sent to abuse@softlayer.com with a quick explanation of what is happening and any other details you can provide. When you submit a complaint about abusive traffic, make sure your message's subject line reflects the type of issue ("DDoS attack," "brute force attempts," etc.) so our team can investigate your report even quicker.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, these are just four types of abusive behavior that our abuse department addresses on a daily basis. Our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) outlines what can and cannot be hosted using SoftLayer services, and the process of reporting other types of abuse is generally the same as what you see in the four examples I mentioned above ... Send a clear, concise report to abuse@softlayer.com with key words about the type of violation in the message's subject line. When our team is able to look into your complaint and find the evidence they need to take action, they do so quickly.

I can't wrap up this blog of tips without mentioning the "Tips from the Abuse Department" blog Jennifer Groves wrote about reporting abuse ... It touches on some of the same ideas as this post, and it also provides a little more perspective from behind the lines of the abuse department. As the social media gal, I don't handle abuse on a day-to-day basis, but I do help people dealing with abuse issues, and I know a simple guide like this will be of value.

If an abuse-related issue persists and you don't feel like anything has been fixed, double-check that you've included all the necessary information and evidence in your correspondence to the abuse team. In most cases, you will not receive a response from the abuse team, but that doesn't mean they aren't taking action. The abuse@ and copyright@ email aliases function as notification systems for our abuse teams, and they correspond with the infringing customers internally when a complaint is submitted. Given the fact that hundreds of users may report the same abusive behavior at the same time, responding directly to each message would slow down the process of actually resolving the issue (which is the priority).

If everything was included in your initial correspondence with the abuse team but you still don't notice a change in the abusive behavior, you can always follow up with our social media team at twitter@softlayer.com, and we'll do everything we can to help.

If you're a SoftLayer customer, you don't want to hear from the Abuse department. We know that. The unfortunate reality when it comes to hosting a server is that compromises can happen, mistakes can be made, and even the most scrupulous reseller can fall victim to a fraudulent sign-up or sly spammer. If someone reports abusive behavior originating from one of your servers on our network, it's important to be able to communicate effectively with the Abuse department and build a healthy working relationship.

Beyond our responsibility to enforce the law and our Acceptable Use Policy, the Abuse department is designed to be a valuable asset for our customers. We'll notify you of all valid complaints (and possibly highlight security vulnerabilities in the process), we'll assist you with blacklist removal, we can serve as a liaison between you and other providers if there are any problems, and if you operate an email-heavy platform or service, we can help you understand the steps you need to take to avoid activity that may be considered abuse.

At the end of the day, if the Abuse department can maintain a good rapport with our customers, both our jobs can be easier, so I thought this installment in the "Tips from the Abuse Department" series could focus on some best practices for corresponding with Abuse from a customer perspective.

Check Your Tickets

This is the easiest, most obvious recommendation I can give. You'd be surprised at how many service interruptions could be avoided if our customers were more proactive about keeping up with their open tickets. Our portal is a vital tool for your business, so make sure you are familiar with how to access and use it.

Keep Your Contact Information Current

Our ticket system will send notifications to the email address you have on file, so making sure this information is correct and current is absolutely crucial, especially if you aren't in the habit of checking the ticket system on a regular basis. You can even set a specific address for abuse notifications to be sent to, so make use of this option. The quicker you can respond to an abuse report, the quicker the complaint can be resolved, and by getting the complaint resolved quickly, you avoid any potential service interruption.

If we are unable to reach you by ticket, we may need to call you, so keep your current phone numbers on file as well.

Provide Frequent Updates

Stay in constant communication in the midst of responding to an abuse report, and adhere to the allotted timeline in the ticket. If we don't see updates that the abusive behavior is being addressed in the grace period we are able to offer, your server is at risk of disconnection. By keeping us posted about the action you're taking and the time you need to resolve the matter, we're able to be more flexible.

If a customer on your servers created a spamming script or a phishing account, taking immediate steps to mitigate the issue by suspending that customer is another great way to respond to the process while you're performing an investigation of how that activity was started. We'll still want a detailed resolution, but if the abuse is not actively ongoing we can work with you on deadlines.

Be Concise ... But Not Too Concise

One-word responses: bad. Page long responses: also not ideal. If given the option we would opt for the latter, but your goal should be to outline the cause and resolution of any reported abusive activity as clearly and succinctly as possible in order to ease communication and expedite closing of the ticket.

Responding to a ticket with, "Fixed," is not sufficient to for the Abuse department to consider the matter resolved, but we also don't need a dump of your entire log file. Before the Abuse team can close a ticket, we have to see details of how the complaint was resolved, so if you don't provide those details in your first response, you can bet we'll keep following up with you to get them. What details do we need?

Take a Comprehensive Approach

In addition to stopping the abusive activity we want to know:

How/why the issue occurred

What steps are being taken to prevent further issues of that nature

We understand that dealing with abuse issues can often feel like a game of Whack-A-Mole, but if you can show that you're digging a bit deeper and taking steps to avoid recurrence, that additional work is very much appreciated. Having the Abuse department consider you a proactive, ethical and responsible customer is a worthy goal.

Be Courteous

I'm ending on a similar note to my last blog post because it's just that important! We understand getting an abuse ticket is a hassle, but please remember that we're doing our best to protect our network, the Internet community and you.

Unplugging your server is a last resort for us, and we want to make sure everyone is on the same page to prevent us from getting to that last resort. In the unfortunate event that you do experience an abuse issue, please refer back to this blog — it just might save you some headaches and perhaps some unnecessary downtime.

SoftLayer has a dedicated team working around the clock to address complaints of abuse on our network. We receive these complaints via feedback loops from other providers, spam blacklisting services such as Spamcop and Spamhaus, various industry contacts and mailing lists. Some of the most valuable complaints we receive are from our users, though. We appreciate people taking the time to let us know about problems on our network, and we find these complaints particularly valuable as they are non-automated and direct from the source.

It stands to reason that the more efficient people are at reporting abuse, the more efficient we can be at shutting down the activity, so I've compiled some tips and resources to make this process easier. Enjoy!

Not only does this page contain our contact details, there's a wealth of information on our policies including what we consider abuse and how we handle reported issues. For starters, you may want to review our AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) to get a feel for our stance on abuse and how we mitigate it.

Follow Proper Guidelines

In addition to our own policies, there are legal aspects we must consider. For example, a claim of copyright infringement must be submitted in the form of a properly formatted DMCA, pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Our legal page contains crucial information on what is required to make a copyright claim, as well as information on how to submit a subpoena or court order. We take abuse very seriously, but we must adhere to the law as well as our privacy policy in order to protect our customers' businesses and our company from liability.

Include Evidence

Evidence can take the form of any number of things. A few common examples:

A copy of the alleged spam message with full headers intact.

A snippet from your log file showing malicious activity.

The full URL of a phishing page.

Without evidence that clearly ties abusive activity to a server on our network, we are unable to relay a complaint to our customer. Keep in mind that the complaint must be in a format that allows us to verify it and pass it along, which typically means an email or hard copy. While our website does have contact numbers and addresses, email is your best bet for most types of complaints.

Use Keywords

We use a mail client specifically developed for abuse desks, and it is configured with a host of rules used for filtering and prioritization. Descriptive subject lines with keywords indicating the issue type are very useful. Including the words "Spam," "Phishing" or "Copyright" in your subject line helps make sure your email is sent to the correct queue and, if applicable, receives expedited processing. Including the domain name and IP address in the body of the email is also helpful.

Follow Up

We work hard to investigate and resolve all complaints received however, due to volume, we typically do not respond to complaining parties. That said, we often rely on user complaints to determine if an issue has resumed or is ongoing so feel free to send a new complaint if activity persists.

Be Respectful

The only portion of your complaint we are likely to relay to our customer is the evidence itself along with any useful notes, which means that paragraph of profanity is read only by hardworking SoftLayer employees. We understand the frustration of being on the receiving end of spam or a DDOS, but please be professional and try to understand our position. We are on your side!

Hopefully you've found some of this information useful. When in doubt, submit your complaint to abuse@softlayer.com and we can offer further guidance. Stay tuned for Part 2, where I'll offer suggestions for SoftLayer customers about how to facilitate better communication with our Abuse department to avoid service interruption if an abuse complaint is filed against you.

This is usually how it starts. Some shady person sends out spam telling people they have one a million dollars or a free laptop or mp3 player with a link a form they need to fill out to claim their prize. Only you don’t win an mp3 player or laptop. You win an infected computer that is now a drone in a much larger botnet. This botnet is either for direct malicious purposes (Denial-of-Service attacks) or indirect malicious purposes (spam, phishing, etc). How do you stop this from happening to you and you becoming “that guy”? Don’t click links in email unless you’re 100% sure who it’s from and what it’s for. That’s the basic rule to remember. Secondly, make sure you have an anti-virus program that’s capable of scanning email and keeping your system protected from malicious browser exploits. Thirdly, (and this should go without being said, but I’m saying it anyways) make sure your computer (and all software) is up-to-date. Sure, there’s the occasional bug and 0-day exploit on up-to-date systems, but there’s a whole slew of exploits and things that can be done to an un-patched system. Keep your systems up-to-date and you reduce the “known” exploits from literally thousands to maybe a few.

Think about this, 80% of the world’s email is considered spam. Of that 80%, the vast majority (more than 75%) is sent using infected computers (drones). If everyone would re-think blindly clicking links in emails and on webpages (social networking sites have a history of people trying to fool users into clicking bad links) then the spammers wouldn’t have drones available to them to send spam. Interesting thought, isn’t it? Let’s stop spam by being smart internet users and denying the “bad guys” the resources they need to send out the spam.